Madras High Court to shift to physical hearings from January 3

In the backdrop of several Omicron cases being reported in the State, the virtual proceedings which began at Madras High Court soon after the March 2020 lockdown is all set to end by this year. After the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for public, grievance, law and justice, the registry of the HC announced that all case proceedings will be undertaken in physical mode from January 3, 2022.

According to P Dhanabal, the HC registrar, in partial modification of the directions issued in the court’s notification dated 9.11.2021, with regard to the hearing of cases in the High Court’s principal seat and at Madurai bench, as ordered, it is notified that all virtual hearings on video conferencing platform shall stand suspended with effect from Monday, 3.01.2022 until further orders.

When lockdown norms were relaxed in June 2020, the Madras High Court Advocates Association and other lawyers’ bodies urged the Madras HC to resume physical court proceedings. However, the court refused those contentions and virtual proceedings continued as per Rule 9 (1) of the Madras High Court Video Conferencing in Courts Rules of 2020.

In October 2020, Justice TS Sivagnanam, who was president of the computer committee at the HC had said that the court has the facility to make virtual court proceedings a permanent feature. Moreover, with the assistance of the TN e-governance agency, the HC had bought 100 licenses of Microsoft to conduct VC proceedings.

Virtual proceedings had begun during the tenure of former Chief Justice of the HC Amreshwar Pratap Sahi. After that, another former CJ, Sanjib Banerjee, saw VC proceedings as a feasible way to dispose of cases during the second wave. Justice Banerjee had also passed several landmark orders during that time. Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari who assumed charge on November 22, 2021, also continued to hear cases on VC mode and passed several directions.

Though the VC mode was a boon during the lockdown, it also had its share of distasteful incidents. Recently, a lawyer named RD Santhanakrishnan while attending e-proceedings was seen in a compromising situation with a woman. The court even initiated contempt proceedings and ordered CB-CID to file a case against him.